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Forever: The Complete Motown Albums 1

Remastered

Marvelettes Format: Audio CD
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 35 ratings
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Audio CD, Original recording remastered, June 23, 2009
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Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches; 6.4 ounces
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Hip-O Select
  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ May 15, 2009
  • Label ‏ : ‎ Hip-O Select
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0029RQE8O
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 3
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 35 ratings

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
35 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

R. M. Desjardins
5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelettes Delivered!
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2009
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It is ironic that in 1961, Motown's first number one pop single was the Marvelettes Please Mr. Postman, and now in 2009 the easiest way to obtain The Marvelettes Forever, The Complete Motown Albums Volume I is to have the postman deliver it! The three disc set distributed by Hip-o Select in a limited 5,000 edition is not readily available in stores and sold primarily online.
The Marvelettes, long revered as one of the premier examples of the girl group gendre, finally get the respect they deserve. The long out of print first four studio albums, Please Mr. Postman, The Marvelettes Sing, Playboy and The Marvelous Marvelettes are included here in their entirety in digital remastering which greatly adds to the listening pleasure of these classic recordings. A live album, On Stage: Recorded Live comprises of tracks recorded at the Apollo Theater in 1962, and the Regal Theater In Chicago in 1963. The stereo version of their Greatest Hits album, along with mono singles and rare sides, plus bonus tracks of recordings the Marvelettes recorded under the name of the Darnells, round off this superb collection.
The packaging is up to the usual high standard Motown enthusiasts have come to expect of the Hip-o Select line. The accompanying booklet is well researched, featuring plenty of rare photographs, reproductions of the album graphics front and back and notes on individual recording sessions.
Disc three hints at the sophisticated soul that the Marvelettes would evolve into during their second phase of their career when Smokey Robinson would mastermind a new direction for the ladies. Hopefully a follow up volume two of their complete final albums is in the works.
This highly anticipated set is well worth the wait and goes a long way in underscoring the Marvelettes contribution as pioneers in rock and soul. Sure to sell out quickly, this is a must have addition to the collection of any serious fan of Motown music.
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Vicki
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Compilation!!!!
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2011
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As a music lover and collector for over 45 years, The Marvelettes have always been my absolute favorite girl-group. Having had the good fortune of growing up during the '60s during Motown's reign on the music industry, the Marvelettes, Miracles, Temptations and Supremes music was indeed the soundtrack of our lives. However, of all of the groups, I felt from the moment I first heard "Please Mr. Postman" on the radio in 1961, there was something very, very special about The Marvelettes that set them apart from all of the others. In fact, "Please Mr. Postman" was the VERY first record (45 for those who are too young to remember) I ever purchased as a mere 10 year old!!

My love for their music continues to this day!! With the recent passing of co-founder and lead singer Gladys Horton, it is with a heavy heart that I felt compelled to write this review. This is by far, the most comprehensive and outstanding compilation of The Marvelettes music to ever be heard. Whether you are a life-long fan of their music as I am, or an occasional listener or novice, I'm sure that you will find that this highly under-rated group of artists have amazing talent and will fall in love with their music!! Every time I hear this compitation (and there have been way to many to count!), I marvel at their delivery as well as their ability to tell a story with such passion...just listen to the feeling Gladys emotes in "Forever" "Someday, Someway" and MY personal favorite, "Strange I Know"!!!

Bravo to all whom worked on giving us this amazingly brilliant piece of musical history!!!! I for one, will be "FOREVER" grateful!!
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William G. Ratcliffe
5.0 out of 5 stars Motown Does It Again!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2009
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I knew this would finally happen, and happen it has!! Releasing the first 6 lp's by one of Motown's flagship groups, The Marvelettes finally get thier due with the release of thier earlier efforts, with many extra tracks to leave us burning for more.
The sound quality is excellent, and to hear it on cd (tho i still enjoy hearing these tracks on vinyl) is a joy. Well packaged and maticulous, Motown is finally giving us the goods in a huge helping, rather than just another repacking. Let's face it, how many 'best of's' and various artists cd's with the same tracks could Motown collector's stand?
This package will appeal to the most 'casual' of listeners of Motown music, and is a perfect start to those who are just beginning to realize how important Motown meant to many, including the music of today.
I have been collecting Motown since 1974, and am still amazed with the diverse product the company has released. This set is 'classic' Motown at it's roots with the girl group genre, tho, with Motown, girl groups was never a genre. At the time, owner, Berry Gordy Jr. perfected girl groups in not just the way they were heard, but presented. So many girl groups from the various Motown labels lasted much longer on the pop charts than the girl group genre itself. Many thank Mr. Gordy for his vision, and openess that black singers CAN cross over to the pop charts with the proper material. When dj's during the 60's obtained a new Motown 45, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know what the next step would be.
Again, many thanks to Motown for such a fine job.
Enjoy! It is a fascinating listen from start to finish.
Much applause to all involved.
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Top reviews from other countries

Lozarithm
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2009
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One aspect of Motown's brilliance was to capture in sound the exuberance, naivety and, not least, need to dance of the American teenager in the early sixties, often performed by artists who were teenagers themselves; and then to mirror with deadly accuracy their emotional, intellectual and musical maturity throughout the rest of the decade. The Marvelettes were a perfect example of this as they were initially a five piece from Inkster who were all at high school when they signed to Tamla, and still were five hit albums later.

The Marvelettes have been overlooked in the Motown reissue programme for far too long, with none of their original albums being in print prior to this very welcome box set, and as they are quite possibly my most preferred Motown artists I couldn't wait to get my hands on this, which tells the story up to early 1966 with the release of their Greatest Hits album. By then they had become a trio of just Wanda, Gladys and Catherine, but had the genius of Smokey Robinson as producer and writer, creating some of the most adroit and pithiest hits in Motown history.

Georgia, who was the primary writer of their first hit, Please Mr Postman, apparently dropped out just before they signed to the label, with Juanita leaving circa April 1962 and Georgeanna around two years later.

Forever - The Complete Motown Albums Vol. 1 contains their first five albums plus the compilation Greatest Hits and a further twenty-six extra tracks which were all B-sides, non-album singles, live recordings from mixed artists compilations and outtakes which were not released at the time. It really is complete in that every known official release is here in at least one form.

Disc One contains their first three albums: Please Mr Postman, The Marvelettes Sing (Smash Hits Of '62) and Playboy, released 1961-1962. On the early albums the gloriously hoarse and intense voice of Gladys Horton was featured on most of the hit singles although Wanda Young (who had stepped in to replace Georgia Dobbins when the band were signed) sings lead on over half of the Please Mr Postman album, and on four from The Marvelettes Sing. On that album sleeve all the girls were name checked apart from her, with Gladys solely credited as lead singer; Wanda was pregnant at the time and Tamla may have wanted to depict the group as it would appear on live appearances over the following few months. This probably also explains why she is only heard in the foreground on a couple of songs on Playboy. These include Forever, which later doubled as a B-side, and did well in the US R&B charts.

Motown was still finding its composers and trademark sound in those early years and the second album entirely consisted of covers of pop and R&B hits from 1962. Mashed Potato Time, a hit for Dee Dee Sharp, had actually been written by several Motown writers including Brian Holland, though it was to be 1963 before the familiar signature of Holland-Dozier-Holland was to appear on a Marvelettes record (Locking Up My Heart). Although Juanita Cowart had left by the time the Playboy album came out in July 1962, she can be heard on three of the older tracks on the record.

The Marvelous Marvelettes opens Disc Two. Released in February 1963, regular producers Mickey Stevenson and Brian Holland were joined on this album by Norman Whitfield, who was later to provide many of the girls' mid-sixties hits. It featured Locking Up My Heart and My Daddy knows Better, both singles, as well as the stage favourite Strange I Know, which had been out as a single the previous October.

Strange I Know also featured on their live souvenir The Marvelettes On Stage - Recorded Live, complete with spoken section, and is reprised in another live version they contributed to Recorded Live At The Apollo Vol. 1, and again on Recorded Live: The Motortown Revue Vol. 2 as part of a medley. The Marvelettes On Stage mostly featured their recorded repertoire with Motown's touring band, but does have a cover of Bobby Lewis' 1961 hit Tossin' And Turnin'.

The rest of Disc Two is taken up with Bonus Tracks - namely B-sides, tracks unreleased at the time and a single designed to sound like a Phil Spector production, in particular the Crystals. It came out under the name the Darnells, but the singer was clearly identified by radio listeners as Gladys Horton. As the Andantes were also involved on the single it's possible that the rest of the Marvelettes were not on it. The B-side, Come On Home, is a largely instrumental track borrowed from a Holland And Dozier session, with some vocal interjections from Gladys and Brian Holland near the end, and was also released in a version by Holland And Dozier.

After 1963's The Marvelous Marvelettes, they did not have another new studio album until March 1967, although their Greatest Hits compilation album, released in February 1966, contained five recent singles that had not appeared on an album. These were amongst their strongest releases to date. There was enough material in the can for an album but Motown was presumably too stretched promoting the Supremes to bother. Ironically, the "no-hits" Supremes had finally hit pay dirt with Where Did Our Love Go, a song that had been turned down by the Marvelettes for being too childish and dumb, opting instead for Too Many Fish In The Sea. It was probably a better record, and reached no. 21 in Cashbox, but was not the phenomenon that Where Did Our Love Go became.

The other non-album singles included were As Long As I Know He's Mine (1963), You're My Remedy (1964), Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead and Don't Mess With Bill (1965). All but the first of these feature Wanda, whose voice had matured into an altogether more sensuous and vibrant instrument, and had been developed by Smokey Robinson, following his regular work with the girls from 1963 onwards. The album was released in mono and stereo versions, and it is the stereo version that has been included here, at the start of Disc Three. It also affords the opportunity to hear the stereo versions of seven of the singles taken from previous albums. In the case of Please Mr Postman this is a completely different take to the mono single (I cannot say which version the mono edition of Greatest Hits used). These are the only stereo tracks on the box set.

The rest of Disc Three is titled Mono Singles & Rare Sides and features the mono single mixes of the four non-album singles on Greatest Hits, and their B-sides, the A-side He's A Good Guy (Yes He Is)(1964), the single I'll Keep Holding On/No Time For Tears (my personal favourite Marvelettes record, and their first release as a trio)(1965) and three excellent stockpiled tracks that were not released at the time, recorded between 1964-1965.

All that is missing from what has been released thus far is the stereo mix of the entire Playboy album that came out on CD in 1992, and the pin-sharp stereo mix of I'll Keep Holding On that first appeared on A Collection Of 16 Original Big Hits Vol. 5 in August 1966. I am hoping these have been earmarked for Volume Two. Perhaps they might also unearth a stereo mix of No Time For Tears, surely the most unjustly neglected work in the Marvelettes canon?

This is an essential, unmissable slice of sixties Motown.
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David Spanswick
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of Motown ever!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2009
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What a treat!! and like buses, none for ages and then three come along all at once. this is a triple treat of everything recorded by the Marvelettes between 1961-65 (plus a few treats from the vaults ~ my my those vaults must be the deepest in music history)

I have always considered The Marvelettes one of the greatest and most underrated girl groups produced by Hitsville. Indeed they were THE original Motown girl group and had all the earliest successes due to fabulous harmonies and some of Smokey's greatest songs "Dont Mess With Bill", "You're My Remedy", "As Long as I Know He's Mine" "Too Many Fish in the Sea"

But I am sure I am preaching to the converted if anybody is reading this review. The greatest thing about this limited new compilation which includes all the early Marvelettes Motown albums is the inclusion of a wonderful booklet on the Marvelette history of recording with Motown, reproduction of the original albums and sleeve notes as well as a wealth of photos of the lovely quartet. It really doesnt get bether than this
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Mr. Eric J. Charge
5.0 out of 5 stars MOTOWN'S BEST GIRL GROUP?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 11, 2009
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Finally, the UK gets the first half of the complete work of The Marvelettes.

This 3-CD set comprises six albums plus stereo/mono alternates, non-album sides, and rounds up some vault material released on compilation CDs over the past few years. To these ears, there's not a dud track.

The original albums are surprisingly strong, with that developing Motown Sound. The legendary producers are Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Norman Whitfield, Smokey Robinson, Mickey Stevenson, Ivy Jo Hunter, Robert Bateman, Clarence Paul, Henry Cosby, Robert Staunton, Robert Walker and Berry Gordy himself.

The Marvelettes FOREVER is an essential purchase for any lover of the girl-group sound, for Motown fans, and for those interested in Beatles early influences.

A fantastic slice of Motown history - high quality from every angle - and a superb collection of the early days of probably Motown's best and most versatile girl group.
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Michael J. Rossiter
4.0 out of 5 stars Well done girls
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2010
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I could listen to the Marvelettes all day and never get bored, even though some of their songs sound a bit twee nowadays.
The "live" tracks suffer from noisy people in the audience, although Wanda Rogers sticks faithfully to the lyrics, but doesn't sound appreciated by the noisy crowd there.
I have never really liked "live" albums and this one shows why. I think the magic is always created in the studio, where artistes are relaxed and not trying to sing over noisy
This is a good set, and its lovely to be able to sing along with the girls in my car. Definately Motown's best girlie group, who were pushed aside in favour of Ms Ross, who has never been able to sing soul at all.
The Marvelettes and the Velvelettes are two of the labels best girlie groups, and when I saw them on stage not that long ago (not in the same show) they proved they still look good, but most of all, still sound terrific
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chris marriott
5.0 out of 5 stars Hitsville's first superstars!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2013
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They thought they couldn't sing well - the "Postman" showed them and the world that they could, the rest is history!
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